Genre
Novel
Setting and Context
Tribal setting and American streets
Narrator and Point of View
Amelia is the first-person narrator.
Tone and Mood
Emotive, anguish, resignation, dissatisfaction, and triumph.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Amelia and her three associates are the protagonists. Death and vagrancy are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
Amelia’s expedition of searching for contentment after being bereaved of her brothers and parents.
Climax
The fateful encounter of the life-changing lottery ticket.
Foreshadowing
The deaths of Amelia’s parents are a foreshadow of the successive demises that emerge in that household.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
Allusions to religion (Christianity).
Imagery
The lives of Amelia and her companions typify resilience.
Paradox
Christian nuns’ treatment of Amelia and her siblings is paradoxical. Instead of showing Christly affection, the nuns strive to strip them of their indigenous heritage.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
‘The bush’ connotes tribal life. ‘Fire’ denotes passion.
Personification
The river is personified.
